Israeli airstrikes have hit several locations on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, the Syrian army warned this Saturday. The attacks came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed military official. He added that air defenses shot down some and those that landed resulted in "some material losses." It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.
There has also been no comment or confirmation from Israel.
The attacks come as tensions rise across the Middle East with the war between Israel and Hamas and following a drone strike last month that killed three US soldiers in northeastern Jordan, near the border with Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one of the strikes launched by Israel hit a residential building west of the capital and may have killed "figures of non-Syrian nationalities," but gave no further details. .
According to the Observatory, this Saturday was the tenth apparently Israeli attack on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year. Such attacks have resulted in the deaths of high-ranking figures in Iran's Revolutionary Guard and allied groups. In December, an attack on a Damascus neighborhood killed a senior Iranian general, Seyed Razi Mousavi, a longtime adviser to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in Syria.
A US airstrike in Baghdad on Wednesday killed a commander of Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq's most powerful armed groups, as part of Washington's retaliation for the killing of three US soldiers in Jordan last month. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that has launched numerous attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, called on Friday for fighters to join its ranks to expel the "occupation forces." " from the country.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has carried out some 170 attacks on bases with US troops in Iraq and Syria in the last four months, claiming that they were due to Washington's support for Israel in its war in Gaza and that its objective is to expel the US forces in the region.
Iraqi and U.S. officials began formal talks last month to reduce the presence of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, but the situation has not changed. Talks broke down after the deaths of three US soldiers in an attack in Jordan blamed on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. Officials from both countries announced Thursday that talks will resume, with the next meeting scheduled for Sunday.
